The Education Council recently held its annual retreat, and I am pleased to offer this brief summary of items looking back over the past year and ahead to high priority items for our efforts in the coming year.

We reviewed the key challenges and opportunities for each of our major committees and subcommittees, and I will mention just a few items of note for each group. The Public Education Committee is developing a website and "ask the expert" tool to facilitate public education and highlight the role that medical physicists play as experts in medical use of radiation. They also received this year a grant from the American Institute of Physics to partially underwrite the cost of developing these web materials. The Medical Physics Education of Allied Health Professionals Committee is currently working with 7-8 outside organizations, and providing expert opinion to such allied organizations in drafting materials for their own constituencies. The Committee on Medical Physicists as Educators has planned a summer workshop to be held on July 26-27, just prior to the Annual Meeting, to revisit important contemporary approaches to education. The Medical Physics Education of Physicians Committee is working to encourage the involvement of medical physicists in residency training curricula in cardiology and interventional radiology. The Continuing Professional Development Committee is working on a business plan for improved utilization of our available online educational resources and is looking at ways to enhance the role of the MOC subcommittee beyond approving SAM questions. The Education and Training of Medical Physicists Committee is looking at standardizing characteristics of DMP programs and is working on means to provide additional support for establishment of diagnostic physics residency programs. The International Educational Activities Committee is working on prioritizing international education efforts and coordinating education and training with other organizations and societies. The Subcommittee on the Oversight of MedPhys Match is working on identifying ways in which MedPhys Match and the common residency application process (MP-RAP) can be better integrated. In short, our many committees and subcommittees have accomplished a lot this past year and have identified important work for the year ahead.

We also continued our efforts at three of our major themes:

1. collecting data to assess the number of graduates and residents completing CAMPEP accredited programs relative to the perceived workforce demand,
2. determining how many additional residency slots are required, and
3. working on ways to address the educational implications of medical physics of the future.

We also discussed several specific items, including a concern raised at the spring 2017 Board of Directors meeting regarding a perception that some graduates of CAMPEP accredited graduate programs lack adequate preparation when applying to residency programs. Data were collected to explore this perception and a report was prepared for the board; a large majority (81%) of residency program directors reported that the preparation of graduate students for residencies was either good or had modest variability among programs. We also discussed means to increase the number of diagnostic residencies, the training of students for non-clinical careers, and opportunities for inclusion of basic review course material in our continuing education offerings.

In summary, the retreat reminded us of the considerable work done by many in AAPM to support high standards of education and training across many types of learners. I am particularly grateful to the chairs and vice-chairs of our many committees and subcommittees who put in considerable effort to advance education in medical physics. We would welcome any thoughts or suggestions you would have to help us further enhance our value to AAPM and its members.